


this is the kind of boy i like

by therebaeka



Series: in which ye means chaos [3]
Category: Chaos Theory Fandom, 全职高手 - 蝴蝶蓝 | Quánzhí Gāoshǒu - Húdié Lán, 全职高手 | The King's Avatar (Cartoon)
Genre: Chaos Theory, Drabble, Eventual Romance, Fluff, M/M, may be multichap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-06-26 20:09:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19775521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therebaeka/pseuds/therebaeka
Summary: Based on Chaos TheoryThe Ye Xius ponder on the kind of boy they like. It showcases how though they are different, there still remains the same core.





	1. Smile

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Invidia_Envy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Invidia_Envy/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Chaos Theory](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14411961) by [Invidia_Envy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Invidia_Envy/pseuds/Invidia_Envy). 



> This is as an answer to one of my journal questions - what are the things that make you fall for a guy.

Ye Xiu, at age 15, has seen one thing brighter than the sun. Whenever Su Muqiu would look back at him after a successful game (con) and his eyes brighten with glee as his lips stretch into the most dazzling smile, he feels as if he's staring at the sun itself.

He's young but he likes to think that he's more mature now. He left the security of their family mansion. He doesn't have money. What he has now, he earned from his own hard work and ingenuity.

So, he likes to think that he's not quite so immature when he says he might have a crush on his best friend. He thinks, in a few more years, he might fall in love with him. Like, real love.

He never told anyone, even though he knows neither Muqiu nor Mucheng would laugh at him. They're his family now and he likes their dynamic. He doesn't want anything to change.

When he wakes up in a foreign place with familiar faces, all he can think of is where Muqiu or Mucheng are.

His Muqiu and Mucheng, he means. Because it turns out, his life's genre switched from slice of life to sci-fi in a flash.

15 years old Ye Xiu, now dubbed Ye Xiuliu, is in the future with five other versions of himself.

He doesn't know how long they'd stay there but he likes the dynamic they built. It's warm and he feels more at home here in their loud, tight, and bright team headquarters than the large Ye family mansion.

Everyone smiles here. His future selves have different sort of smiles and he notices how it gets tired and strained in time.

He wonders if Muqiu's smile is the same. Is his sun dimmer in this time? He wants to see Muqiu's smile again.

Whenever he asks if they could talk to him, his future selves and Mucheng always deflect him. He's young, not stupid.

He wonders if he and Muqiu had a falling out. Maybe it's because future him confessed.

But, no, Muqiu still trusts future him to watch over Mucheng. That must mean something, right?

Haa. This future is confusing. But he likes playing games. He's good at it.

And he also found another great smile through Glory.

It's a great smile. Not bright like the sun in a way Muqiu's will forever be in his mind. It's pale in comparison, but it isn't fair to compare because they are different smiles from different persons.

His new friend's name is Qiao Yifan and he's quiet in a way that assures Ye Xiuliu that he is always listening. He is shy and blind to his own admirable qualities but he likes to think that with his pushing and support, Yifan can see what he and his future selves see in him.

His smile though.

Yifan's smile is like the first Spring morning after a cold winter season. It's a breath of fresh air. It's not dazzling nor blinding but when it comes your way, it takes your breath away. It's Yifan's smile - a beautiful thing on its own.

15 years old Ye Xiu knows a lot of things.

He knows he loves playing Glory. He knows he always want Mucheng to be happy. He knows that if the Ye Xiu's go back to their own time, a part of him will always be gone. He knows there's no one that can compare to Muqiu's smile. He also knows that given the chance, he might like Yifan's smile a teensy bit more.

Just a teensy bit.

Miniscule amount.

Maybe.


	2. Noise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which I can't find anything for our dramatic, most likely to get kidnapped via bribing of food, not completely shameless fifth brother so we jump to his twin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: I hope I did Xiusi justice. I hope I did Muqiu justice.
> 
> My heart hurts. I wrote this quickly because the idea would leave me otherwise.
> 
> I was supposed to update this last night but I fell asleep and when I woke up, Invidia updated (bless her, read the new chapter, it's beautiful).
> 
> So, yes, this one is for Invidia. I'm praying for your family during these tough times. Take care of yourself and know we're always here.

Even after years since he lost Su Muqiu, 20 years old Ye Xiu can still hear his voice. It's not the sanest thing to admit, but that's the way it is.

Su Muqiu has a strong voice. It carries such a heavy weight of passion that he can't help but be in awe with every word that comes out of his mouth. Maybe it's because of the way his words weaved for him that made Ye Xiu fall in love with Glory. Because this is something Muqiu loves.

Su Muqiu has a silver tongue - persuasive and he always knows the right words to say. The Muqiu he remembers can fill the silence of a whole room with his words. He never seems to run out of things to say.

It's not fair, really, that the rest of China - no, the rest of the world is now deaf to Su Muqiu's voice and tantalizing words. They won't hear his quips, his jokes, his impassioned speeches, and his sarcastic wit. They won't appreciate the way Su Muqiu plays a man with his words.

It's not fair that he never got to finish what he has to say. It's not fair that no one will ever know what else he wants to say because all it took was a split second for him to be gone.

It's really not fair.

Even till now, years and years later, he can still hear Su Muqiu's voice and words in his heart, the young man given the name Ye Xiusi thinks. Su Muqiu's voice and words live on in his heart.

He loves Glory because Su Muqiu loved Glory.

But he fell in love with Glory regardless of Su Muqiu's involvement.

Working with Tao Xuan. Building the bedrock foundation of Excellent Era from its humble beginning. This was all because of Su Muqiu's words. Because Su Muqiu opened thr gateway for him to play Glory.

Winning the third championship for the team - that's his gift to Su Muqiu.

So, it's really a stab in the heart when he wakes up a day after winning Excellent Era a third Glory championship and finding out he was forced to retire in the near future.

He wonders briefly, what Su Muqiu would say if he knows about this. He wonders what Su Muqiu would say against Tao Xuan. He wonders what Su Muqiu would have said to prevent it from happening at all. 

Because he knows... he believes in Su Muqiu. He believes in the power of his words. 

Since he woke up in this future, the silence of his world that only Su Muqiu's phantom voices fill is full of noise again. He looks at his other selves and wonders if he was really quite as loud or did he change over time?

He wonders if Muqiu would have been chattier or quieter if he had the chance to grow. He wishes he could hear him again. He wishes he could fill the void of silence his departure left him.

Ye Xiu looks like a man who enjoys his silence. He looks like the man who thrives alone. But that's not true. He likes the noise. He likes listening to beautiful voices and their captivating words. As Ye Xiusi, his voice is loud. He laughs loudly, teases brightly, and trash talks wildly.

He fills the silence of his world with his own voice now. It’s still not enough. THere’s still a gap only Su Muqiu could fill.

The problem is, he lost the greatest speaker he'd ever had a fortune of meeting years ago. He feels like no matter how loud, there will always be some part of him that carries silence. His past and future selves, Mucheng, his team - they fill the silence of his days and he is happy. It should be enough.

Ye Xiusi is the 20 years old - officially 18 years old, chronologically 25 years old - when he finds a grating voice and so many words per minute tumbling out of another young man's mouth.

It's annoying, really. He's annoying.

Huang Shaotian doesn't know the meaning of inside voice or silence. He chatters away about nonsensical things. He wastes words. His voice isn't even that great sounding. It’s too loud. It’s too much.

So why on earth is it that hearing his voice quiets the need for phantom Su Muqiu. He needs to stop and actually listen to find out what's the important message in between the expositions and background information they do not need. He tells himself he’s doing that for maximum trash-talking effect. He needs to know what the right words to say so he could rile him up with his own words.

Huang Shaotian cannot be called a silver tongue. Everyone seems to want him to shut up rather than to continue talking. He's not going to be giving impassioned speeches that would inspire a lazy NEET to move. He's just loud and obnoxious and with so many useless things to say.

What a waste when China listens to your voice.

Su Muqiu would probably at least speak words with substance. Hmph.

Ye Xiusi doesn't really know it yet. But when he compares the two vastly different individuals, he sees potential in one against the other. He doesn't see yet that even with his judgment against Huang Shaotian, he never denies that he does listen to him or that he fills the silence that had been there for so many years now.

He doesn't realize that though small, given the chance, this Laoye might - just a little bit - learn to like this Furen's voice the way he does with Su Muqiu's voice.


	3. Steady

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because Invidia said an old friend and my heart says let me have my WuYe, thanks a lot MTKiseki for your great fics which makes me have feels for a rare pair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know much about Xuefeng to be confident enough to write about him. The prequel! We don't have much info about him apart from some translated works uhuhu.
> 
> Please forgive me for my Qianliyan voice.

Face-to-face with his past, 31 years old Ye Xiu has some retrospection with who he was as a child, as a teen, as a young adolescent.

He'd like to commend his amazing self, though. Despite the difference in age, the him from the past are actually quite mature. Even as a 15 years old, he happens to be more mature than the children his age. Go, him. Ha.

Still, he sees grief prevalent in his 18 years old and 20 years old self. That's not a surprise. The memories are fresh and he knows that a part of him didn't want to move on. But he is surprised to look back at 25 years old him and see the awful grief that prevails in his eyes when he thinks no one is looking.

He knows his 28 years old is also surprised at the emotions in his younger selves. He thought that after a year or two, the only thing he would think about when he was young was playing Glory and taking care of Mucheng. Huh, who knew he was such a complex individual? No wonder his harem catching charisma was strong.

Still, he knows that even he isn't completely free from Su Muqiu's ghost. A part of him doesn't even want to be free from him.

28 years old Ye Xiu - who had smiled and raised his account card in honor of Muqiu and at the same time, as a last cheer for him - can understand.

Almost a decade has passed and he wants to believe he moved on. Maybe, in another life, if Muqiu and he had more time, maybe he'd be completely and irrevocably in love with him without any chance of moving on.

But the him of today who survived many trials and tribulations without Su Muqiu - his protector, his friend, his person - realized that he wouldn't have been happy to see Ye Xiu be burdened with his memory.

That's just who he is. A young man who would help him carry the burden, who would support him, who would always have his back.

Even years later, the retired Glory player self-dubbed as Ye Qianliyan admits that he hasn't allowed anyone to fill the role Su Muqiu had left. Not really.

 _But,_ a small voice at the back of his head whispers, _there was someone you trusted enough to have your back._

And lo and behold, there he stands. The very man he was just thinking back. 

Ye Qianliyan is surprised to bump into an old friend when he decides to skip off a meeting with Ye Qiu and leave it all up to his 'twin brother'.

The man, clean cut and older but still with that familiar smile and air around him. Despite the almost decade that has passed since he last saw this man, Ye Qianliyan would never forget this steady support behind him.

Wu Xuefeng. 

Brother Xuefeng. 

Vice Captain.

Brother Xuefeng's presence is a surprise, but not an unwelcome one. He is just confused since this never happened in his time. Ah, this is one divergence that he welcomes wholeheartedly.

Wu Xuefeng doesn't know who he is but he doesn't shy away. He is respectful to him and it is odd. Everything is different and strange.

Wu Xuefeng's hair is cut short and he does not wear those ugly glasses that he had grown fond of. He has changed in the years he was gone.

Ye Qianliyan stands as tall as Wu Xuefeng is now. It's odd.

Wu Xuefeng doesn't raise his hands to muss his hair or pat his head. He doesn't call out 'little captain' and smile indulgently at him because he doesn't know Ye Qianliyan.

Wow. That hurts.

He didn't even think that after all these years, he could be hurt like this by his emotions.

He misses the comfortable and familiar camaraderie they have. He misses the steady hand on his back when he falls. He misses how synced they are.

Ye Qianliyan laments over this. He is afraid that time eroded whatever camaraderie they built.

He's emoting so much that he ends up tripping and almost falling to his face. But - _his heart skips a beat_ \- a strong arm catches him and helps him back up.

"Be careful there," Wu Xuefeng's hand is on his back - a familiar steadying presence.

Ye Qianliyan wonders if there's a chance to rekindle that old spark again.


	4. Complex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter jumoed from one point to another and I let it. I have no clue what I'm doing here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is no such thing as a gentleman when it's 8 in the evening and there's traffic. You stand on that bus and a man will just watch you suffer in your corporate attire as you stand the whole bus ride home. All of 2 hours.
> 
> It's just fact.
> 
> My only solace is writing abiut Ye Xiuwu and wondering what I'm supposed to write about.
> 
> I went for ZZK because at least there's previous exposure. SQY only had the whole love from afar saga and that one guild thing but all of those are Online. Soooo.

Drama and om spite, Ye Xiu can admit, are the things he  _ excels  _ in.

He can remember finding his little brother's runaway bag and knowing he is going to leave him behind. Unacceptable. It's pure awful spite that pushed him to take that bag, leave, and let his brother take over the family's expectations.

Apart from those, even as a young man of 18 years old, Ye Xiu aka Ye Xiuwu can bite the bullet and say that he is horribly and stubbornly biased. He does not easily forgive nor does he forget.

It's one of the things Su Muqiu loves to tease about him. He succeeds out of spite. He flaunts his spite with drama. He trusts easily and wholly but he does not know how to simply forget a betrayal.

Su Muqiu can call his spite and drama cute because he's never been on its other end at full force. He can tease him because Su Muqiu is honest and kind. He doesn't lie. He won't leave him behind. 

That's how he is supposed to be, though.

Su Muqiu left him behind.

It's okay, he tells himself, it wasn't Muqiu's volition. Had he been given a choice, Muqiu would never leave him. He knows this to be true.

Su Muqiu is the brightest star in the night and he will remain the same no matter what. All his memories of Muqiu would never leave him.

He's going to remember him. Good, bad, and ugly.

That's the punishment for Muqiu leaving. He's going to have to live on in Ye Xiu's memory no matter what.

Bumping into Zhou Zekai once again is a misfortune, even when it's just the two of them - free of teasing 'brothers' or crazy shippers.

Ye Xiuwu is biased against the younger/older player. He's not going to be shy about admitting it.

He doesn't like the quiet player for so many reasons that the whole ZhouWu debacle is just the smallest grain of rice to pick.

Zhou Zekai plays the same class as Muqiu and he received Muqiu's title but he is everything Muqiu isn't. Despite accepting that Zhou Zekai is deserving of the title of Gunner King, Ye Xiuwu refused to let go of his bias against him.

Su Muqiu is resolute, passionate, and extroverted. He is honest and deceitful. He is stupid and clever. He is contradicting - complex.

Meanwhile, Zhou Zekai has a pretty face and some pretty good playing skills. He's simple. Those are the only things Ye Xiuwu could decide are his good points.

It just goes to show how, if Su Muqiu had been given the time, he would have smoked this Gunner King out of the palace and sat on that throne for years to come.

Ye Xiuwu, in complete dramatic fashion, squares his shoulder and walks away from this boy.

But  _ they just keep bumping into each other.  _

It's annoying.

It's not even just bumping into each other that's the problem. It's also not the whole instance where he calls their shared number whenever anyone else was unavailable. It became a habit to answer. It became normal to bump into him.

What is annoying is how Zhou Zekai surprises him.

When he reminds Ye Xiuwu of Su Muqiu when he has no right to do so.

When he tries to battle against his problem with socializing.

When he tries hard to converse despite shaking like a leaf. 

When he spaces out while in the middle of a conversation.

When he works hard in playing Glory.

When his eyes sweep over the field.

When he speaks with his actions rather than his words. 

When he fills all the other roles while playing.

That's not even how Glory works! You're supposed to work as a team!

What an annoyance.

He's just like Su Muqiu in just as many ways he is so different from him.

Annoying.

Endearing.

Crawls into your affection like an unpleasant ant.

Yuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WXF is in CT canon I'm so happy. Huhu. He and Qianqian interacted. I'm frothing. Aaaah. We salute, Invidia.


	5. Umbrella

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which I finish with some (what I hope is) impact, concluding with some nice heart warming Sanxiu and previous Ye Xiu type of boy compilation.

After regaining his old championship; after going back home; after being told he was to coach for the Chinese National Team; after all that, 28 years old Ye Xiu knows that he may have made many mistakes in his short life but he would never change anything with how he handled it.

But, when thrown back to the past - to the time when he was at his lowest - he wanted to curse everyone and everything.

Look, what's with the genre switch? He'd like to go back to his normal MMORPG slash drama genre, please.

Besides, if he was going to time travel, at least the time should be right. He didn't want to go back to when he was 25 years old. He wants to go back to when he was 17 years old and he still has Su Muqiu by his side.

That would be preferable. He does not have many regrets. Some of them are on Excellent Era and how he handled it after the original team members left. But most of them are regrets for not saving Su Muqiu.

If he was to travel back in time, he wanted to go back in time and stop Muqiu from crossing that street.

He wants to be able to see Muqiu's smile again. He wants to hear his voice. He wants to feel his steady presence, his hand on his back, know that he's there for him. He wants to be confused by Muqiu - to have his contradicting character beside him again.

 _What a spoiled child_ , he thinks about his thoughts. _You ought to know that you can't always get what you want._

He sighs.

The former coach of the Chinese Glory National Team whose name is now Ye Shunfeng slaps his face, stands straighter, and decides to do his best for this time's him.

He isn't good with this housekeeping stuff but he'd like to think he's passable, if not outright great.

He adapts to this timeline; adapts to his role as the second oldest, and reluctantly adapts to being the quasi-responsible one since his oldest future self likes his carefree attitude.

He says reluctantly, but he has embraced the role of caretaker.

He doesn't play Glory as he used to. It's not even about age. He looks at his younger selves and thinks, wow, look at the way their eyes brighten while playing this game he loves.

Let the young have their fun.

Their time here is not certain, after all. They are nothing but outliers to this time. He knows they shouldn't do anything to show their presence in this time, but he also knows that they've failed the moment they decided to create a different team.

He eyes every person his younger selves have stumbled upon and touched the lives of. These people he already knows, and whom he is learning something new about each day.

"Don't get attached," the oldest Ye said.

What a laugh, he thinks, looking at the way Ye Qianliyan follows Wu Xuefeng with a smile. Look at who is attached.

He shakes his head and gets lost in his thoughts.

He isn't blind and he isn't dumb. Okay, he was a little dense but having the gift of hindsight and looking at the scene from the outside, he can see things he never saw before.

Even though they joke a lot about the couple name of Ye Xiuliu and Qiao Yifan, he sees that they are getting attached with each other. He sees it in the way Little Ye tries to make Yifan smile everyday. He knows it from hearing Little Ye compare Yifan's smile to Su Muqiu.

(It's not even that similar. Yifan - this Yifan and the Yifan from his timeline - smiles shyly in comparison to Muqiu's bright grin. He can't see what Little Ye sees.)

He looks around his juniors and sees the way they gravitate around his younger self. He sees his juniors follow Third Ye around with admiration in their eyes and his heart warms at the sight.

During his time, he really was blind to the effect he had on them. He knows that, even in some instances, they do care for him. But to know that they see him that way.

Heh.

It makes him smile to know he's got the older brother vibes for many of the other Pros.

Third Ye truly has strong charisma points.

 _Ye Xiu_ has strong charisma points.

Nice.

\---

It rained when he was out of the base.

He didn't bring any umbrella. He didn't bring a phone. He finds himself stuck in a waiting shed looking like a wet cat with the downpour that caught him off-guard.

He couldn't help but sigh, a heavy feeling in his heart he knows is nostalgia threatens to burst. With each sound of pitter-patter from the rain meeting the roof, his mind travels to warm days even during the cold rain. He remembers how warm he felt despite the broken heater at that small internet café. He remembers laughter and cries and how nothing is unsolvable with the three of them together.

He remembers bright Su Muqiu - his sun, his protector, his umbrella when it rains.

He remembers and each raindrop that touches his skin burns because he knows it means his umbrella is no longer there to shade him.

Ah, being in the past and being surrounded by his past selves who still haven’t gotten over Muqiu’s death has unearthed the grief he had thought he had already gotten over with. He had thought that by cementing Lord Grim’s name in Glory’s history, he had cemented Su Muqiu’s presence in Glory and he could proudly smile and face Muqiu again.

Now, it seems it wasn’t enough to stave the hurt.

He still feels alone even with the soothing balm that is the presence of Mucheng and the other Ye Xius. 

He feels alone even in the midst of the the friends he made. 

He feels alone without Muqiu to hold an umbrella over his head and tell him everything will be fine.

His lament was cut short by the loss of the raindrop on his skin. He looked up and saw an umbrella covering him.

“What?” He mouthed.

“Ye Shunfeng, am I correct?” His eyes lowered to meet a pair of uneven eyes.

“Wang Jiexi,” he said.

“You don’t have an umbrella with you,” he observed.

Ye Shunfeng didn’t say ‘obviously’ but his eyebrows spoke it loudly. “Are you here to visit San Ye?”

“Yes,” he said, “Ah, since I am going to Chaos Theory’s base, would you care to share an umbrella with me?"

Ye Shunfeng paused for a moment, looked at the umbrella, then back to his junior. A small smile crossed his face.

“Sure.”

The realization hits him and he feels lighter.

Yes, he still misses Su Muqiu. Yes, the hurt is still there.

But the truth is, he isn’t alone anymore.

He had met numerous kind people who would share an umbrella with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did it. I finished this story. I would like to thank everyone who commented and read this fic. You pushed me to actually finish another fic. Whoo.
> 
> I used Wang Jiexi because he's the one who actually has some CT canon basis as of the moment.

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to recommend the fic: Chaos Theory, an amazing story made by Invidia_Envy. Read it. It's an amazing story.
> 
> Hi. Come visit me.  
> Tumblr: [Eulphy](http://www.eulphy.tumblr.com)  
> Twitter: [@_awyn](https://twitter.com/_therebaeka)


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